Moon Knight Reading Order: Best Place to Start With Moon Knight Comics

If you think Daredevil has a hard time with Batman comparisons, just wait until you meet Moon Knight. Few Marvel characters are accused of second-tier rip-off status as often as Moon Knight, to the point that it would give anyone a complex.

Comic book fans who write off Moon Knight as an also-ran are missing out on some of Marvel’s best comics, though, especially in recent years from writers such as Warren Ellis and Jeff Lemire.

It’s a lesser known fact that Moon Knight has also landed himself various Avengers status, from the West Coast Avengers in the 1980’s to the Secret Avengers of the 2010’s. Couple that with an ongoing mental illness and challenges sorting out a possible Disassociative Identity Disorder, and Moon Knight offers plenty of different story telling angles from the Caped Crusader.

Moon Knight, Secret Avenger

Ed Brubaker’s Secret Avengers run, launching during Marvel’s Heroic Age, is one of the great misses in modern Marvel Comics. Brubaker is literally unable to produce a bad comic, but Secret Avengers never reaches the heights the likes of Brubaker’s Captain America: Winter Soldier or Immortal Iron Fist. It’s a perfectly mediocre Avengers off shoot.

Moon Knight is merely a role player in the pages of Secret Avengers, where Steve Rogers is undoubtedly the star. Worth checking out, but largely this section will help clarify what Moon Knight’s been up to prior to the next solo Moon Knight run.

Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Moon Knight

There are a few oddities about this 12 issue run on Moon Knight that tend to leave it overlooked in most discussions of the character.

For starters, the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are best known for their near 60 issue run on Daredevil, one of the absolute greats of the 2000’s. When comic book fans think of Bendis and Maleev, odds are they think first of Daredevil.

On top of that, Moon Knight functions as an odd precursor to Marvel’s Age of Ultron event, written by Bendis.

I enjoyed this run as it was coming out significantly more than I expected. Partially it’s Bendis and Maleev working together, but they also carve out a strong take on Moon Knight and his challenges with identity.

I’m genuinely in awe of these comics every time I read them, from Ellis’s psychotically imaginative supernatural science to Shalvey’s unrivaled action sequences. These are inventive, beautiful comics, and you don’t need to know a thing about Moon Knight heading in that the comic doesn’t adequately explain in a few pages.

All-New All-Different Moon Knight – The Jeff Lemire Run

Whereas Ellis and Shalvey’s Moon Knight declared on every set-up page that Moon Knight is “completely insane,” Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood’s run takes a step back and asks: “Wait, is he really?”

There have been plenty of “Marvel does One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” takes before (I think first of Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and Dr. Rot story arc), but not many runs start and focus inside the asylum. It’s a strong, great-looking opening salvo in a new direction for Moon Knight.

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About Dave

Dave is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Comic Book Herald, and also the Boss of assigning himself fancy titles. He's a long-time comic book fan, and can be seen most evenings in Batman pajama pants. Contact Dave @comicbookherald on Twitter or via email at dave@comicbookherald.com.